Faceless Mercenary
by ipcryss
Summary: Life can be painful. Raised as a soldier for hire, Jaune Arc knows this very well. After a series of events beyond his control, he finds himself on his way to the prestigious Beacon Academy. Will he be able to leave his painful past behind? or will guilt and doubt consume him? (Parings undecided. Rating may change to M later on.)
1. Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of it's characters or locations. Those are the property of Rooster Teeth. And the song "Ain't no rest for the wicked" belongs to the band Cage the Elephant.

Chapter One: Ain't No Rest for the Wicked.

'I don't belong here.'

It was a simple thought, a basic one, but one that resonated deeply within the mind of Jaune Arc. As the large metal dust plane continued its long journey to it's destination, he looked over the other passengers. They were all green. All children. He doubted any of them had ever seen the chaos of a real battle.

Every now and then, one of them would look over at him and stare. It was to be expected, after all, he was dressed like a desert dweller in the middle of a mostly forested area. His sandy brown cloak wasn't about to win any fashion contests, and the fact that his face was obscured by a series of bandanas and a pair of goggles, was irregular, to say the least. The irony of the fact that his clothing was drawing attention was not lost on him, but dressing like everyone else only works if you're in the same place as everyone you're dressing like.

He sighed as he continued to survey the crowd. Other than a girl in red that looked too young, and a blond girl that looked too eager, no one on the plane seemed to stand out.

Jaune yawned and turned on some music. One of the nice thing about keeping your head covered is that no one knows you're wearing a headset. When he was younger, Jaune found dust plane trips like this nauseating. Now, he just found them tedious. In all honesty, it was a very slight improvement.

As he listened to a man sing about the evils of human nature that he encountered on his walk home, Jaune began to drift off to sleep. His rest was short lived, however, as the memories returned. Memories of his friends and comrades. Memories of the dead and lost. Memories of his failure.

He was soon awoken by an all too familiar feeling. Someone was getting too close to his mask. With speed that surprised the culprit, he reached up and grabbed the offending hand by the wrist. He opened his eyes and found himself staring straight into the surprised gray of the young girl from earlier.

"Please refrain from touching my mask, ma'am."

"U-umm… Uhhh." The girl stuttered and stammered. She clearly didn't expect the masked boy to wake up. At least not so abruptly. "I t-thought you might want to know t-that w-we're here."

Jaune looked around and saw that the rest of the passengers were shuffling off of the plane.

"Oh. Thank you, ma'am."

He let go of the girl's wrist, picked up his duffle bag, and disembarked. As he stepped into the sunlight, he looked at his destination, the prestigious Beacon Academy. He couldn't help but chuckle as he thought about his current situation. It was going to be a busy next few years.

"I guess what they say is true, 'Ain't no rest for the wicked.'"

Authors Note: Yeah, so this is my first time writing in like 8 or 9 years, and quite frankly, I'm pretty sure I'll need a lot of work to make something readable. So, any constructive criticism would be gladly welcomed. After all, I'll need some advice on my flaws to improve. But enough about me. I hope you enjoyed the first of what I hope to be many chapters of "Faceless Mercenary." Jaune's past and future should be revealed soon enough. Thank you for reading, and please review.


	2. Astral Academy

Chapter Two: Astral Academy

While not all of the potential students at Beacon could say they've lived dangerous lives, many of them still liked to believe they could spot a potential threat. For most of them, this was mostly true. Some of them were even sharp enough that they could spot dangerous individuals in a crowd but for some reason, this masked boy dressed like a desert dweller was something of a mystery.

Everyone seemed to get different reads on the boy. To most students, he looked like some sort of transfer student, as harmless as the rest of them. To some, he looked like a kid trying to stand out of the crowd, one who constructed a persona to try to gain recognition, and as such, probably not too dangerous. But to a handful of students, they could see he was deadly.

He walked with a certain dignity, as if he had been trained to be an aristocrat. He always seemed aware of his surroundings despite the chaos caused of crowds of students moving in. But the most unsettling thing was how he always seemed to catch the people staring at him.

None of the students knew this better than Blake Belladonna. The masked boy had caught her eye as he stepped off the plane, his tattered brown cloak stand out amidst all the students who had cleaned up and dressed for their first day at beacon. There was something familiar about him.

As she watched him from her perch in her tree, he turned and looked directly at her. Her auburn eyes met yellow lenses of his goggles, and she froze. He looked directly at her, directly into her eyes, and tilted his head slightly. The shape and tint of his goggles gave him a vaguely insectoid look, and, for what felt like an eternity, Blake couldn't help but feel like she was being sized up like she was prey. At least until an explosion in the distance grabbed both of their attention.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Knowing when someone was watching you was fairly standard in Jaune's old line of work. After all, if you couldn't tell if you were being watched, then odds were you wouldn't have to worry about it much longer, due to the fact that people generally find corpses unentertaining. But to see a familiar face here was a pleasant surprise.

Seeing the faunus girl stirred up a few memories of some past jobs. He couldn't help but wonder if she was still with her group. Probably not. She was here, after all. He smiled as he saw the look on her face as her caught her. People always make such interesting expressions when you catch them watching you, from in a tree, far away.

As much as he enjoyed watching her squirm, an explosion distracted him, and when he looked back, she was gone. He shrugged and made his way towards the explosion. The lack of panic it caused was somewhat odd, but whatever caused it would probably be interesting, to say the least.

As he approached the source of the explosion, the first thing that caught his eye was a familiar red cloak. The second thing he noticed, was the young girl wearing it, the same gray eyed girl that tried to see his face. As he watched people walk around her, ignoring her like she was a piece of the scenery, he couldn't help but sigh. He approached the girl, and offered her a hand.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ruby was surprised by the hand being offered to her. It was clad in black leather with a metal plate on the back and studs on each knuckle. The forearm was wrapped tightly in a length of chain. She looked up and saw the same mask and goggles she tried to look beneath on the plane.

"Are you okay ma'am?"

His voice was soft, in contrast to his appearance, but it held a hint of concern. Hesitantly, Ruby took the hand and with a surprisingly gentle touch, the masked man helped her to her feet. Surprised by the unexpected help, and a bit embarrassed from having to be helped up after exploding, she couldn't help but blush a bit.

"O-oh, yeah. I'm fine. T-thanks."

"No problem. Just doing what I can to help, ma'am."

"Umm," Ruby couldn't help but scratch the back of her head. "Please don't call me ma'am. My name is Ruby. Ruby Rose."

"Oh, well, my name is Jaune Arc. It's a pleasure to meet you Ms. Rose."

Ruby couldn't help but sigh. This guy was all business, it seemed.

"Just call me Ruby."

Jaune nodded, then just stood there. There was an awkward silence. Jaune may know how to fight men and monsters, but he possessed no knowledge of casual conversation, especially with the fairer sex. Unsure of what to do, he decided to walk away. After all, if you walk away from a conversation, it ends, right?

What Jaune didn't expect was the girl to follow him. This was new to him, and it made him feel sort of nervous. They walked for a bit, wandering the campus in silence before Ruby spoke up.

"So, I have this." She took out a scythe/sniper rifle combo weapon. "I made it myself, though I think I may have gone a bit overboard in designing it."

Jaune looked at the weapon with a scrutinizing eye before responding. "Interesting. It's an impressive mixture of ranged and melee weaponry. What caliber rounds do you use? .308?"

Ruby beamed. She loved it when people took an interest in her weapons. "Nope! .50 cal."

Jaune's eyes widened. "Seriously? Wow. I didn't expect such a small girl to use an anti-material rifle."

After that last, Ruby couldn't help but pout. "Hey! I'm not small. I drink my milk."

Once again, Jaune wasn't entirely sure how to respond. "Oh. Of course. I apologize, Ruby."

Seemingly placated by his apology, Ruby nodded before asking, "So, what do you have?"

"Well, I have a sword and shield, but I think you'd be a bit more interested in this."

Jaune reached into his cloak and pulled out something. It was a rather odd looking hand gun. It actually looked like a small rifle. Its barrel was longer than most pistol barrels, and instead of the clip loading into the hilt of the gun, if attached in front of the trigger. The clip itself was a .50 caliber sniper magazine.

"I call it, the Con."

Ruby looked at the gun and when "Oooh. A custom hand gun! That thing must pack quite a kick."

Jaune nodded. "Yes it does. I remember the first time I used it, the recoil sent the gun flying back into my face. It hit so hard that I was out like a light. When I woke up, my forehead was practically one big bruise. That wasn't fun."

Ruby giggled as Jaune shared his experience with her, and Jaune couldn't help but smile.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The rest of the day had been uneventful. Jaune caught a red-haired girl looking at him, and the headmaster's speech had been a bit less inspiring than he thought it would be, but overall, not much of note happened.

As he looked out across the hall from his spot against the wall, he sighed. He could still feel many different pairs of judgmental eyes staring at him. They were probably wondering why the masked freak hadn't changed into something more comfortable to sleep. He really didn't care what they thought, after all, it's not like he expected too many of them to last that long. People like them rarely did in places like this. They came in full of confidence and dreams of being heroes, and either left broken or dead. He'd seen it too many times before, and it rarely ended well.

He looked over and saw Ruby glancing at him every now and then and smiled. It was nice to make a new friend, but he worried for her. He then spotted the blond haired girl from the plane, Ruby's sister, from his understanding, looking at him with a wary eye every now and then. She was beautiful, he would have to admit, but it looked like she didn't like the look of him.

The next person to catch his eye was the faunus from the tree. She sat there reading her book, at least until Ruby tried to initiate a conversation. She was another one he would have to keep an eye on. He seriously doubted that she recognized him, with the mask and all, and that suited him just fine. It was one less thing to worry about.

Once again, his attention was pulled away from her by a loud noise. This time, it was a white haired girl complaining about how loud Ruby was being. It was another familiar face. Weiss Schnee, the daughter of one of his more frequent employers, Sturm Schnee. He desperately hoped she didn't recognize him. If word got back to her father about him being in the same school as her, things might get… awkward.

As things began to wind down, Jaune began to drift off into sleep. He doubted it would last long, but he would need rest for whatever test Ozpin had for them tomorrow. As he began to slip out of consciousness, he found himself hoping, probably in vain, that, for once, his memories would leave him be. Unfortunately, life is rarely that kind.

Authors Note: Well, here's chapter two. I hope it set things up and flesh other things out a bit. I apologize if the dialogue is a bit unnatural. I feel like I have trouble making it flow. Once again, thank you for reading, and any constructive criticism or advice on how I could improve would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading, and hopefully the next chapter would be out soon.


	3. Bring Your Guns

Chapter Three: Bring Your Guns.

Waking up the next morning was easy for Jaune, after all, the bad dreams never let him have a deep sleep. He looked around and saw that most of the other students were still sleeping soundly, despite the accommodations. He stood up from his spot against the wall and stretched.

People would probably be heading over to the cafeteria for a light breakfast before the test. It would be crowded, so he would avoid it. Instead he headed to the roof. It would, in all likelihood, be quiet, and empty. It would also give him a chance to scope out the area a bit more. Not to mention he didn't feel like eating in a crowd. He would prefer not having people stare at him, hoping he would show his face to eat.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yang Xiao Long didn't like the look of the masked guy that hung out with Ruby yesterday. She didn't like the look of him at all. She had seen his type before. He was a one of those thugs for hire she'd seen so many times before. She didn't know what group this guy was with, but it didn't matter. They were all the same, greedy sociopaths that would kill their own families for the right price.

She didn't know him, or what he was capable of, but she would protect her sister.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As he stood there on the roof, looking out over Beacon and the surrounding area, Jaune pulled up the bottom of his mask of bandanas, and began eating his food. It was a military ration. Jaune usually kept three or four different types of rations on him at a time. He did like to have choices of what to eat, even if half of them did taste like garbage.

He was about to take a bite of his breakfast when he heard it. An almost inaudible click. Someone else, it seemed, had decided to visit the roof. The inaudible footsteps gave nearly no clue as to who the visitor was, but their voice was a dead giveaway.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite blond soldier. How are you Jaune?"

Jaune couldn't help but smile. "I'm holding it together. Though I am surprised to see you here. I didn't think any respectable school would accept someone with your… quirks."

As her heard the girl behind him laugh, he turned to face the faunus, not bothering to pull his mask back down. "But, in all seriousness, it's good to see you again, Velvet."

The rabbit eared girl smiled. "Likewise, Jaune. So, how was orientation? Make any new friends? Maybe a girlfriend?" Velvet wiggled her eyebrows.

Jaune chuckled a bit. Same old Velvet. "You know me. I'm not exactly a brilliant social butterfly. All of yesterday, I talked to a total of one person, and I'm pretty sure that her sister already doesn't like me. She was giving me the evil eye last night. I think she might have an idea of who I am."

Velvet smiled, "Ohhh. So you made a friend with a nice girl? Are you planning on asking her out? If you want, I could run interference on the sister."

Jaune couldn't help but groan. "Seriously, Velvet? Seriously?"

"What? Is it so bad that I want the people close to me to be happy? Besides, you're way too stressed. Seriously, people have been saying you need a girlfriend for, what, ten years?"

Jaune couldn't help but facepalm. "People weren't saying that I needed a girlfriend when I was seven. Besides, I'm not that stressed."

Velvet gave him a look filled with disbelief and scrutiny. "Jaune, you're either fighting, or looking for a fight. All you do is fight. You need a hobby or a girlfriend. Otherwise you'll probably get kicked out of here for trying to take on a teacher in the circle of honor."

"Hey, the circle of honor is a time honored test of strength that people should be proud to take part in, and I have lots of hobbies."

Velvet just gave Jaune another look. "Like?"

Jaune thought for a bit. "That's not important. The fact of the matter is, I don't need a girlfriend, and the girl I met yesterday was only fifteen. With my luck, she'll be trying to kill me by the end of the week."

Velvet gave Jaune a sly smile. "So, you're going to wait three years for her? I always knew you were patient, I just never thought you planned that far ahead."

Jaune blushed a bit and let out another groan. "It's not like that. She's just a friend, and I'm not even sure if it's going to stay that way for long." His tone became more somber. "We both know that my… lifestyle doesn't really allow for a lot of friends. "

Velvet sighed. "It's different here. These people aren't the garden variety soldier. They're hunters, and they're pretty tough. I promise you, if anyone can keep up, it's the people in this school, right here."

Jaune hung his head, his mood turned sour once again, and his thoughts full of doubt. "That remains to be seen, and even if they can keep up, I doubt they'll want to. Besides, it'd be better if I kept my distance. There will be less casualties that way."

There was a somber silence, then Velvet put a reassuring hand on Jaune's shoulder. "What happened to J.B. and the others, it wasn't your fault."

There was another pause, but this time, Jaune broke it.

"Please leave."

"Jaune…"

"I have to get ready for the entrance exam. Please leave me to prepare."

Velvet hung her head and began to leave, but as she reached the door, she said one more thing.

"The others don't blame you. You know that, right?"

And with that, she left.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

So far, Weiss Schnee was not enjoying her time at Beacon. Between the young girl that kept causing her problems, and the fact that barely anyone here look anywhere close to competent, she had a feeling that this was going to be a stressful year. As she made her way to her locker, her thoughts couldn't help but drift to the people she had seen.

There was the young girl with the red cloak. Ruby. That's what her name was. She was more trouble than she was worth. Her blond sister, Yang, or something. She was going to be annoying to deal with. Next was the girl with the ribbon. Weiss wasn't sure she even got her name. At least she was quiet.

While she was lost in thought for a moment, she was brought out of it by the sight of something red. She couldn't help but hope it wasn't Ruby. She was pleasantly surprised when she saw it wasn't the young girl with the red cloak, but the red hair of a champion. Two lockers over from her locker was the four time Mistral champion, Pyrrha Nikos.

Now while Weiss would never admit it, she was a huge fan of Pyrrha's, and the idea of possibly being partners with her was simply too good to be true. She wasn't going to miss out on a chance like this. Weiss had decided, she was going to go over there and convince Pyrrha to be her partner. This was going to work perfectly, she could feel it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Pyrrha had to hold in a sigh. She hoped that Beacon was going to be different, but apparently her celebrity status had preceded her. She had been silently preparing for the test, checking her equipment in front of her locker, when she was approached by the heiress of the Schnee Company. It was obvious that the girl was a fan, from how quickly after introducing herself, she made it known that she knew who Pyrrha was. And now she was trying to recruit her for her team.

Pyrrha smiled, nodded, and told her that being on a team with her would be grand. And in all likelihood, it would be. After all, Pyrrha wanted nothing more than to make some friends her own age, and maybe a boyfriend, but that wasn't a priority. It was just that she wanted people who saw her as Pyrrha Nikos, the person, not as the goddess of victory. She knew it sounded like a cliché from some old television show, but it's like the old saying goes, 'nothing's a cliché when it's happening to you.'

Speaking of clichés, there seemed to be some desert bandit cliché looking figure walking up to her and Weiss. Either that, or some sort of weird cosplayer. Honestly, in her experiences, a bandit might be easier to handle. Weiss didn't notice the approaching figure, at least until he spoke.

"Excuse me."

Well, she didn't notice at first. The guy's voice was softer then Pyrrha expected. It took a few repetitions before Weiss noticed, and apparently she decided that the best course of action was to ignore him. This didn't work. He simply repeated himself over and over, his voice never changing in tone or volume.

This went on for a few minutes with Weiss trying to talk to Pyrrha and the bandit looking guy trying to get Weiss's attention. It was actually kind of amusing to Pyrrha, but unfortunately, all things must eventually come to an end, and Weiss didn't have the patience for this.

"What is it? Can't you see I'm talking with Pyrrha Nikos?" Weiss said the name with a sort of reverence, as if she were talking about royalty. The guy looked at her and tilted his head as if he were confused.

"Okay. Should I know who she is?" When she heard this, Pyrrha suddenly started paying full attention. This was an interesting development. Weiss, however, didn't seem to share Pyrrha's interest. Instead she groaned at his ignorance.

"She's the four time Mistral Tournament Champion!"

The bandit shrugged and said, "Good for her. I didn't know that the court musicians had a champion."

Pyrrha and Weiss gave him a confused look, and there was an awkward silence. After a good minute Weiss came to a realization, and gave the guy a look of disbelief.

"Mistral. Not minstrel. She's the champion of the kingdom of Mistral."

The bandit shrugged again, apparently unimpressed. Pyrrha gave Weiss and the bandit a look of disbelief before hiding a smile. This guy couldn't be serious. Weiss, however, felt the need to continue.

"She was the top of her class at Sanctum Academy!"

"That's nice. I'm sure all that experience spinning will help in combat."

Weiss gave him another look. This time one that was less of confusion, and more of a 'what's wrong with you' look. Pyrrha had to stifle a giggle. Weiss tried one last time.

"She's on the Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes cereal box!"

The masked guy looked at Pyrrha's feet before replying.

"She doesn't appear to be standing on anything."

Weiss facepalmed and Pyrrha couldn't help but giggle at this guy's antics. Weiss let out a groan before responding.

"I give up. Who are you, and what do you want?"

The guy gave a slight bow as he introduced himself. "My name is Jaune Arc, and I would like to inform you that you are standing in front of my locker. Please move, Mrs. Schnee."

Weiss raised an eyebrow at this. "You know who I am, but not who she is?"

Jaune shrugged again. "I guess I'm just funny like that."

Weiss sighed and stepped out of the way of his locker.

Jaune nodded and approached his locker. "Thank you. By the way, do either of you have any idea what kind of test the entrance exam will be? I wish to prepare accordingly."

Pyrrha and Weiss gave each other a look. After a moment, Pyrrha decided to answer.

"It's just a standard hunter's exam, right? We probably have to go out and kill some Grimm, then come back."

"Hmm. I doubt things will be that simple. They rarely are." Jaune opened his locker, revealing its contents and causing Weiss to gasp. "The lack of information they give us makes it more difficult to prepare, but, that's probably intentional. After all, adaptability is a key virtue for hunters."

Pyrrha wondered what caused Weiss to gasp, and took a few steps back from her locker and looked inside his. What she saw, she didn't expect.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ruby was feeling a bit nervous. Here she was, at one of the world's best hunting academies, 2 years early. Feeling nervous was natural. On the bright side, her sister was here with her. Having Yang around was nice, and she made a new friend yesterday. At least, she thought they were friends. It was hard to tell with that guy.

Her day so far had been okay. She had woken up, got dressed, had breakfast with Yang, and now she and Yang were heading to their lockers to prepare for todays exam. It just so happened that on the way there, she saw a few familiar faces. Well, a familiar face, and a familiar mask, and a sort of familiar face. As familiar as a face from a cereal box can be. Being the friendly person she is, Ruby waved hello.

"Hi Jaune, Weiss. I didn't know you two were friends."

While Weiss and Pyrrha were silent, Jaune responded. "Oh, I just met these two. I'm not sure if they consider me a friend yet."

Ruby nodded, seeming to accept that. Yang, on the other hand, was wondering why they were so silent. She decided to voice her curiosity.

"What's with them?" Jaune stepped aside and showed Yang and Ruby the contents of his locker. It was filled with weapons, ammo, explosives, and supplies. He could have supplied a small army with everything he had. Half of the stuff there was too expensive for a normal hunter, and the other half didn't even look legal. How did this guy get this stuff?

Jaune looked at the two surprised girls and asked, "Need any ammo?"

Authors note: Sorry that this chapter took so long. I didn't plan it out as well as I thought. Well I revealed a bit more of the backstory this time. I hope it met everyone's expectations. Once again, please review with any comments, advice, constructive criticism, etc… Thank you for reading.


	4. A Walk in the Woods

Chapter Four: A Walk in the Woods

Jaune sighed. This was quite the dilemma. Here he was, in the middle of a Grimm infested forest, holding some hybrid sword-spear-rifle, and he wasn't sure what to do. It nearly hit him as he fell from the sky, and if he hadn't dodged, it would have put a hole in his cloak and pinned him to a tree. He was fairly certain that it belonged to that Pyrrha girl, but he didn't know if she was trying to help him, or kill him. That led to his current dilemma.

Should he stay here, wait for her, and return it? In which case, she may thank him, or try to kill him. Should he leave it here and continue along his merry way? If he did that, someone or something else may take it, leaving her defenseless, in which case she may blame him, and try to kill him. He could take it and go find her, but it would probably end up as one of those messes where you go to find someone and just miss them and it takes forever. Or, he had one more option. Take it with him and go to find the relic. She would probably accuse him of trying to steal her weapon, and try to kill him.

In his experience, the nicer-looking the woman, the deadlier. And he wasn't going to lie, that Pyrrha girl was very attractive. Now that he thought about it, Beacon was full of pretty women. He wasn't sure if that meant it was full of deadly women, or if things were different here. Jaune sighed. If this girl was deadly, then he wouldn't want to risk getting on her bad side. It'd make finding out her motives that much harder. He'd wait for her and return the weapon. He did need a partner, after all. And from the sounds of it, Pyrrha may be able to keep up.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As Pyrrha made her way towards where she threw her weapon, she hoped that Jaune hadn't been attacked by any Grimm while hanging there. Of all the people she met, he was the first to not recognize her. He may have looked like some sort of marauder, but maybe it was a cultural thing. She didn't want to judge. She wasn't sure what she expected to find as she went to find Jaune, and recover her weapon, but she was sure she could handle anything that came her way. She was four time Mistral Tournament champion, after all.

When she entered the clearing, she saw the masked boy rhythmically bobbing his head while examining her weapon. She watched this for a moment, wondering how he managed to get down from the tree, and why he was bobbing his head. Before she could do anything to get his attention, he spoke.

"Quite the interesting weapon you have here, Miss Nikos. A sword, a javelin, and a semi-automatic rifle, all in one convenient package. It must take quite a bit of skill to be able to wield it." He then tossed the weapon to her.

As she caught it, Pyrrha couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Um, thanks, I guess."

"You're welcome. By the way, if you were aiming for my head, you were off by about an inch."

Pyrrha was a bit confused. "Aiming for your head?"

"Don't get me wrong, it was a great throw. But even if I hadn't dodged, it still would have missed my head."

Pyrrha's eyes widened and she gasped in realization. "No, I didn't… I wasn't… You looked like you weren't going to land well, so I aimed for your cloak, to pin you to a tree so you wouldn't hit the ground and get hurt."

Jaune stopped bobbing his head. "So your idea to stop me from landing on my head, was to suddenly pin my cloak, which is around my neck, to a tree, and hope that my cloak can support my weight. You do realize that if you had hit my cloak, the sudden stop would have probably snapped my neck, right?"

There was a pregnant pause as a realization dawned on Pyrrha. Perhaps she should have thought this through a bit more. "S-sorry?"

Jaune laughed. "It's fine. It was a good throw, and my neck isn't broken, so no harm done."

If she had been trying to kill him, then it would be best to keep an eye on her. He didn't know what she was capable of, and killing her would cause too many complications. He'd just play the fool, and everything would eventually become clear.

He looked around. "Judging by the lack of company, I'm guessing you don't have a partner."

Thankful for the change in subject, Pyrrha shook her head. "No, I don't. And from the looks of it, neither do you."

Behind his mask, Jaune smirked. "This seems like quite the conundrum. You need a partner, and I happen to need one too. What to do?"

Though she didn't see it, she could practically hear his smile, and she responded with a smirk of her own. "I wonder… Would you like to be my partner?"

"Maybe. I should warn you. I'm not exactly a good person."

Pyrrha was a bit puzzled by this statement, but decided it was nothing. "I think I'll be the judge of that."

"Are you sure?"

"I think I can handle it."

There was a pause. "Okay. I just hope you can keep up."

Pyrrha smiled. This was going to be interesting.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After a few minutes of walking, Jaune and Pyrrha came across a cave. It was very old, and very dark. As he looked upon it, Jaune let out a sigh. It looked like it would be a pain to explore, and naturally, that made it somewhat likely that what they needed would be inside. Pyrrha wouldn't be able to see, and making a torch would attract attention from anything dwelling within. He thought for a moment before he reached to the belt he wore beneath his cloak. He pulled out a small headset and handed it to Pyrrha.

"Here. Put this on. It'll allow us to maintain contact while I search the cave."

Pyrrha had a lot of questions for Jaune, but for now she settled for asking the two most relevant ones.

"Wait, what do you mean while you search the cave?"

That was her first question.

"I'd like you to wait here while I explore the cave. If anything tries to come out, you'll have to take care of it. Also, the lack of light will be hindrance to you, and bringing a light source will make us a highly visible target to anything in there. "

"But-"

"I'll be able to see just fine. " Jaune tapped the side of his goggles. "These do more than just keep dirt out of my eyes. And no, I don't have a spare pair of goggles."

Pyrrha let out a sigh. Something told her that arguing with this guy would just be a waste of time. He sounded like he had this argument before. However, she still had another question.

"Do you always carry around a spare headset?"

There was a bit of a pause.

"…No."

Pyrrha gave him a disbelieving look.

Jaune sighed. "Alright, I usually carry around three or four spares."

Pyrrha continued to give him an odd look.

Jaune shrugged. "What? They sell them in bulk. And, they can play music from your scroll."

Pyrrha just shook her head in disbelief. "Just tell me if you find anything."

Jaune nodded, and headed into the cave.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jaune took a few steps into the cave. Even though it was pitch black inside, his goggles made it all clear as day. He'd have to thank dolphin boy for the hook up. As he looked around, he saw some drawings on the walls. It looked like people being attacked by a giant scorpion. He couldn't help but smile. A giant scorpion would be fun to fight. Not to mention their venom sold for a pretty lien. More money was always nice, even if he didn't really need it.

As he made his way further into the cave, he spotted it. A giant Deathstalker, the size of a truck. Jaune's smile widened. He loved a good challenge.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Pyrrha couldn't help but feel worried. She let her partner wander into a dark cave alone, in the middle of a grim infested forest, during an exam. He may have a lot of weapons and gadgets, but for all she knew, he could just be some rich kid who never had a fight in his life. He wouldn't be the first kid to think that weapons and armor could substitute for experience.

It had been a good five minutes before Pyrrha heard anything. First, it was four loud bangs, then a shrill shriek, then silence.

"Jaune? Jaune?" No response. "Jaune? Are you okay?" She couldn't help but feel a bit panicked.

As she got ready to enter the cave, her headset crackled to life.

"I'm fine."

Pyrrha let out a sigh of relief. "What's going on? Do you need help?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jaune raised an eyebrow. Pyrrha actually sounded concerned. He could honestly say he didn't expect that. Well, if he died, she probably failed, so it made sense that she would want him to live, for now.

As he wrenched his sword out of the beaten Grimm, he frowned. The thing was still alive, but it went down way too easily. He had barely cut it and its claw practically popped off. Sure it was half blind now, but it still was too easy.

He could just kill the thing now, and be done with it, but at this point, it just seemed like a waste of effort. He also had to get back to Pyrrha.

He sighed as he made his way out of the cave. He should probably respond to her questions.

"I ran into a Grimm. It was nothing serious, but the artifact wasn't here. We must have found the wrong ruins. I'll be out in a minute."

Jaune gave the Grimm one last look as he made his way out. The thing would die of blood loss soon enough, and even if it didn't, it posed little threat in its current pitiful state.

He gave the giant scorpion one last kick and left. He knew it wouldn't try to attack him. It was an animal, and animals knew better than to attack anything deadlier than they were.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 **Authors Note: Sorry this chapter took so long, I'm still working on how to make things flow. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter done soon. Any reviews and advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm sorry in advance if I mess up some of the other characters personalities. Thank you for reading.**


	5. Hunting Path

Chapter Five: Hunting Path

As they made their way through the forest, Pyrrha couldn't help but wonder. There was something odd about Jaune. The way he walked, the way he carried himself, it was as if he was just going for a leisurely stroll. It was as if they weren't in a Grimm infested forest for an exam. Speaking of which, ever since the cave, they hadn't encountered any Grimm. Usually, traveling in an area like this would lead to an encounter with a stray Beowulf or maybe an Ursa, but there was nothing. Oddly enough, the lack of danger in a dangerous place made Pyrrha feel uneasy, like she was in the eye of a storm.

Normally, Pyrrha was fine with silence, she loved it. It usually meant that she could relax, but now it just felt wrong. So she decided to break the silence.

"So, Jaune, where are you from?"

"Irrelevant."

That wasn't the answer Pyrrha was expecting.

"What do you mean irrelevant?"

"I mean that where I was born and where I lived in the past don't really matter right now."

That wasn't really much of an answer.

"What do you mean? Why doesn't it matter?"

"It doesn't matter because I'm not there, I'm here. It doesn't matter if I'm from Vale, Mistral, Atlas, or Vacuo. The things I fight don't care, and neither do I."

This was getting frustrating.

"So you don't care about the place you're from? You don't care about your home?"

Jaune shrugged. "I'm not sure I really consider anywhere home, so, not really."

Pyrrha was about to retort, but Jaune cut her off.

"Listen, I don't really like talking about myself. I just don't. Especially with someone I just met. We can talk later, but we have to get through this trial first. We're here."

He was right. They had arrived at the ruins, and apparently they weren't the only ones.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yang and Blake were currently content. While Yang hadn't run into her sister, like she hoped she would, she had found a good partner, who, while a bit on the quiet side, was skilled, and together they had found the ruins that held the things needed to pass the test. While Blake was silently happy that her partner, while a bit on the rowdy side, was not one of those outspoken anti-Faunus meat heads that she had seen around. However, they were both thankful that they weren't partnered with a certain masked student. Yang could tell he was just a rent-a-thug, and Blake could tell something about him was off.

"Miss Belladonna, Miss Xiao Long, I see you've made it."

Speak of the devil. As if summoned by their distaste for him, Jaune walked into sight, with Pyrrha following him. While Yang gave him a dirty look, Blake gave him a surprised one. She was fairly sure she had never introduced herself to him, so how did he know her name? There were many different possibilities going through Blake's mind, and very few of them were good.

Either oblivious or uncaring of the wary looks that the two girls were giving him, Jaune continued to speak.

"That's good, very good. It means that's we're all probably at the right place. And it's also good to see that you two are unharmed."

Yang gave a rueful smirk. "It's nice to see that you're so concerned with the wellbeing of your fellow hunters." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Jaune shrugged. "Would you rather I completely ignored your wellbeing? I could try, but it be difficult to ignore my caring nature."

There was a pregnant pause. No one was really sure of how to respond to that. They couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

The pause quickly came to an end as a rumbling filled the area. While the girls got there weapons ready, Jaune just stood there, his arms at his sides, as if he hadn't heard or felt the rumble.

Yang could almost swear she heard the smirk on his face as he spoke. "It looks like we're about to have company."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lie Ren had known Nora for a long time. They had been together since they were little, and when you're with Nora for a long time, there are certain things you get used to. Colorful explosions, long conversations about somewhat random things, eating more pancakes in a week then some people do in their entire lives, these were all things Ren was used to. Riding on the back of a frantic Ursa as Nora attempted to steer it through a forest, was not.

Quite frankly, this wasn't as bad as some of the stuff he had been roped into in the past, but it still wasn't something he wanted to make a habit of doing, and he hoped that it would be over soon. Luckily, it seemed like the Ursa was slowing down.

As it came to a halt in a clearing, Ren took notice of its occupants. There was a black haired girl, with amber eyes, a lilac eyed blond, who seemed to have been physically blessed, the Mistral champion, Pyrrha Nikos, and what looked like a masked desert bandit. And other then the bandit, they all seemed to be prepared to fight. Probably because he and Nora rode in on a giant devil bear beast. On the bright side, said devil bear seemed to be dead.

"Aww, it broke."

Nora frowned. Now her new pet Ursa was dead. She was pulled out of her thoughts by what sounded like clapping. She looked up from her fallen steed, and smiled. It looked like she and Ren had found four new friends! And the masked one was applauding for some reason! She liked it when people applauded. It usually meant that they had enjoyed something. She wondered what it was. Fortunately, she didn't have to wonder for long, because the bandit began to speak.

"Wow. Using a freshly captured Ursa as not only a means of deterring other Grimm, but also as a form of transportation? Impressive. I like your ingenuity."

Nora beamed at the compliment, while everyone else just stared at the masked man like he had grown a second head, or he removed his mask and he had some sort of wolf head. Basically, they were surprised, none more than Ren. Someone thought that riding a Grimm was a good idea? He was crazy.

Nora giggled in appreciation. "Thank you! It's nice to know that people like my ideas. I have lots of ideas. Most of them are good, but some of them don't turn out so well, like the grenade whip, or the explosive jump shoes! Though I think we should try those again, Ren."

Ren shuddered. He remembered testing those shoes. It wasn't so much as testing as much as it was Nora strapping sensitive explosives to the bottom of his shoes without telling him. He was just glad she used small ones instead of the heavy stuff she had. He did enjoy the bed rest he got while his feet healed, though.

As nice as their meeting was, a loud screech grabbed everyone's attention. Everyone looked up towards the source and saw a Nevermore flying by, holding something red and something white.

"Oh, it looks like Ruby and Miss Schnee have arrived as well, and they're using a Grimm as transportation too." Jaune turned to Pyrrha. "I think we should try that."

Pyrrha looked at Jaune like he was mad, which in all fairness, he seemed to be. She was about to respond negatively to his idea, there was a scream from the sky. She looked back up and Ruby was falling.

Jaune sighed. "Pyrrha, give me a boost, please."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ruby was not really happy. For the second time today, she found herself falling from the sky. Honestly, it was getting annoying. Well hopefully she would have a soft landing. What she didn't expect was to find herself in a strong, but uncomfortably chained pair of arms. She looked up to see who caught her.

"Hey Ruby. This is quite the entrance you're making."

Ruby couldn't help but smile at Jaune's quip. "Well, I thought it might be fun to ride a Nevermore."

Jaune smirked beneath his mask. "Well, I can't blame you for trying. It's good to see such ingenuity in the field."

And just like that, Ruby could feel her mood improve. He thought she had ingenuity. As they landed, Jaune placed Ruby on her feet, before looking back up at the Nevermore and the screaming heiress on its talon.

"Umm, should I help her, or…?"

Ruby nodded. "Y-yeah. That sounds like a good idea."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After recovering Weiss after she let go of the Nevermore, and Ruby and Yang had their reunion, everyone entered the ruins and recovered their relics, which were chess pieces. Nora had grabbed a rook, while screaming that she was queen of the castle, Jaune let Pyrrha choose, and she also took a rook piece, while Ruby and Yang both took knights.

Everything was all well and good, and everyone was happy to have made it this far, at least until a series of loud shrieks pierced the air. To Pyrrha, it sounded familiar, but Jaune knew what it was immediately.

"Deathstalkers. At least five of them from the sounds of it. Maybe more. They don't sound happy." He turned to the others. "We should go."

As if they heard him, a group of five Deathstalkers burst into the clearing. Four of them were fairly standard, car-sized, eight-eyed, scorpions, while the fifth one was immediately recognizable to Jaune. The fact that its right claw and four of its left eyes were missing was a dead giveaway.

Jaune mumbled to himself. "Could've survived. Just had to stay in the cave."

He failed notice the ever subtle twitch of Blakes bow as he said this.

Jaune assessed the situation. He looked to the other students, and then to the Deathstalkers. They were all in a wide open area, and the Deathstalkers were all together on one side of the group. There were eight students, and four and a half Deathstalkers.

Normally, he would take the Grimm on by himself, but he doubted the other students would be able to remain uninvolved in the conflict, and as they were, there would more than likely be casualties. Ideally, they could find a more suitable location to fight the Grimm, but for now, it seemed that the best option would be to retreat. As bothersome as it was, it was the only viable option.

He let out a sharp whistle, causing Blake to flinch, and everyone to turn to look at him. With a commanding voice, noticeably different from his soft speaking voice, he shouted, "Fall back! Try to get back to the school!" He was met with affirmative nods. Everyone was in agreement. This wasn't a fight they could win, so they ran.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Weiss wasn't happy. Admittedly, her unhappiness seemed to something of a reoccurring trend as of late, but that just made her even more upset. She knew that there would be a test to enter Beacon, but she didn't think it would be getting catapulted into a forest and having to search for some ruins. She knew they would have partners, but she didn't think that she'd be stuck with the young exploding girl. She knew she would probably have to fight, but she didn't think she'd end up getting attacked by five Deathstalkers. Today was not a good day.

She didn't like being chased by five different giant scorpion monsters, then again few people did. She had tried to freeze them, but she had only brought enough ice dust to freeze one. While being chased by four giant scorpions is marginally better than being chased by five, it was still a lot worse than being chased by none. The girl with the hammer had shot some grenades at them, but other than make colorful explosions, they didn't do much to slow down the Deathstalkers. With how the Deathstalkers plowed through the trees, it seemed like they were actually gaining on them.

Things only seemed to get from bad to worse as the group seemed to be approaching some ruins in front of a large chasm, with the only way of crossing it being what looked like a nexus of ancient stone bridges that were who knows how old. And if that wasn't bad enough, as they approached the brittle old bridges, a familiar screeching was heard.

It looked like the world was against them today. The same Nevermore that she and Ruby had decided to "ride" earlier had swooped down in front of them, between them and the bridge. This was problematic. Now they were sandwiched between to very bad choices, though, in all fairness, the odds of beating one giant bird were a lot better than beating five giant scorpions. Still not a great choice to make.

None of the group even needed time to think. They all charged the Nevermore without hesitation.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jaune watched as Nora distracted the Nevermore by shooting grenades at it. It worked well enough, and everyone got to the bridge, with Ruby leading, followed by Weiss, Yang, Ren, Pyrrha, then Blake, with him and Nora bringing up the rear. As they were crossing the bridge, the Nevermore swept down and shattered it.

There was good news, and bad news. The good news was that meant Ruby, Weiss, Yang And Ren were away from the Deathstalkers, buying them some time, the bad news was that Pyrrha, Nora, and Blake were stuck here with him and the aforementioned Deathstalkers. He let out a groan of frustration.

He could take the Deathstalkers, but not with the others so close. He could try leading them away, but this group seemed like the type that wouldn't allow what they though was a sacrifice, though, if they didn't have a choice, that was an entirely different matter. It looks like he would have to leave them no choice. He grabbed Blake.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Blake shrieked. She was not expecting the weird bandit guy to grab her. Everyone just stared at him like he was crazy.

"Getting you to safety." He responded, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. With the grace of a figure skater, Jaune tossed Blake over the gap to the rest of the group. "Nora! You next."

Nora gave Jaune a blank, expressionless look for a moment, before her face broke out into her regular grin. "Okay!"

After tossing Nora over the gap, where she landed neatly on Ren, he turned to Pyrrha. "Pyrrha! Now you."

Pyrrha continued to look at him like he was crazy. "What about you?"

"Don't worry about me. I have a plan."

Pyrrha looked at the five Deathstalkers that were closing in on them, and back to Jaune. "I hope it's a good one. But there's no way you're throwing me."

Jaune nodded and interlaced his fingers in front of him. "I'll give you a boost."

Pyrrha stepped onto his hands and he helped her jump over the shattered bridge.

Once she was on the other side, Jaune reached into his cloak and pulled out some red rectangular object. "Ruby! Catch!" He tossed it over the bridge to her.

As she caught it, she looked at it for a moment with a puzzled expression on her face. "More bullets?"

"Incendiaries!"

Ruby's expression lit up like her targets would soon do. She gleefully unloaded her gun and put in the new magazine as fast as she could, a huge grin on her face.

Jaune couldn't help but smirk beneath his mask at how much Ruby was enjoying the ammunition. He looked over to the Deathstalkers and sighed. Time to get to work.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Pyrrha was worried. Her partner said he had a plan before her helped her over to the others, but from the looks of it, he was just charging towards almost certain death. That didn't seem like a good plan. That seemed like a very bad one.

"What is he doing? He's going to get himself killed!"

Jaune charged directly at the wounded Deathstalker, pulled out a large gun that seemed halfway between a pistol and a rifle, and shot at one of its good eyes. The bullet hit one of them, putting it out and causing the creature to screech and recoil, thrashing its tail and good claw around wildly.

With unexpected agility, Jaune dodged under its claw, and leapt onto its back. As the creature screeched and thrashed about, the other four Deathstalkers turned to their wounded leader. Jaune lifted his leg up high and brought it down in an axe kick on the monsters carapace. With how hard its shell was, the kick probably wouldn't do anything but aggravate the beast. The wounded Deathstalker tried to sting him with its tail, he dodged to the side and hopped off the monster. If this was part of the plan, it still didn't seem like a good plan.

Then, he yelled. "Over here you stupid arachnids!" And with that, he ran off, back into the forest, with five car sized scorpions hot on his tail. Screaming at them every now and then to get their attention. As the remaining seven students continued to try to take down the now burning Nevermore, Pyrrha slowly heard her partners yells fade off into the distance. This looked like a bad plan.

Pyrrha didn't like this. She didn't like it one bit. She may have known the guy for less than a day, he may have been frustratingly evasive when it came to talking about himself, and he may have accused her of trying to kill him, but he was her partner, and she wasn't about to let him die. Also, he didn't recognize her as a celebrity, so, that was a plus.

"Nora! Give me a boost!"

Nora stopped shooting grenades at the burning, screeching Nevermore and gave Pyrrha a grin and a nod. "Okie-dokie!" She turned her grenade launcher back into a hammer and was about to bring it down on the segment of bridge that Pyrrha was standing on, catapulting her into the air, but a certain angry voice stopped them.

"What are you doing?" Weiss shrieked. "You can't go after him! You'll get killed!"

While Pyrrha appreciated the fact that Weiss was concerned, now was not the time. "I have to go! There's no way he'll survive by himself!"

"And getting yourself killed by a bunch of Grimm is going to help? Even if it were wounded, the two of you would have trouble taking down even one of them. There's no way the two of you can handle five!"

Pyrrha hesitated. Weiss was right, there was no way that two students could take on five Deathstalkers, even if one of them was half dead. But still, if he died and she did nothing, she would never be able to forgive herself. "I still have to go. Nora, give me a boost!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jaune was content. He was in the middle of a forest, fighting off a group of giant scorpions, by himself, with an old-fashion longsword. For most people, this would be enough to ruin their week, and possibly the rest of their lives, but for Jaune, it was a challenge, it was fun, and it felt good. He may not have gotten much sleep earlier, but nothing woke him up more than the rush of a good fight.

He ducked under one of the beast's claws, only for another to try to smash him. He stepped forward, closer to the maw of one of the giant arachnids, and jammed his sword into its mouth. As it screeched, Jaune smiled. The Grimm thought that they could beat him with greater numbers. They couldn't, and he enjoyed watching them try.

He fired two shots and put out two more eyes, bringing the total amount of Deathstalker eyes down to thirty three. A quick slash and one of the creatures lost its stinger, another slash, and one lost its claw. Most people thought that a Grimm's carapace was impervious, but it wasn't. Heavily armored Grimm were easy to dispatch if one knew where to strike, and when the limbs came off so easily, the fights got less difficult as time went on. It was actually kind of disappointing.

It wasn't long before two of the five Deathstalkers were dead. As he stared at the remaining three, he shook his head. It was a decent challenge, but it still fell short of what he wanted. Oh well, you take what you can get. As the three Grimm attacked him, he couldn't help but feel underwhelmed. The Deathstalkers kept just trying to grab or smash him with their pincers, while trying to sting him every now and then. It was actually getting tiresome.

One of the Deathstalkers lunged at him with its tail, only for something odd to happen. There was a glint of bronze, and a round shield seemed to fly in and slice off the creature's pincer, causing it to crash down into its carapace. Jaune watched the shield sore back to its point of origin, and saw the one who threw it, on the other side of the Grimm. Then he heard her call out to him.

"Jaune!"

Pyrrha? What was she doing here? This wasn't good. In calling his name, she had drawn the Deathstalkers attention to her, and given them a new target, one that it wasn't hopeless to fight.

Jaune turned to the three Grimm. "Don't you dare…"

The Grimm stared at him for a moment, as if weighing their options, then they charged at Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha! Move!"

He ran towards her, hoping to get there before the Grimm. She was getting into a combat stance. What was she planning? Did she think she could fight them? This was bad, really bad.

To her credit, she handled them a lot better than Jaune expected, but it still wasn't good enough. She was able to dodge there attacks well enough, but her own attacks did very little to damage the Deathstalkers. An unlucky block threw her onto her back, and into the path of another Deathstalker, the only one that still had all its limbs. She was able to roll out of the way as it brought down one of its claws, but she barely dodged the second, and this left her stuck between the two claws, and in the path of its stinger.

Pyrrha knew that there was a chance that she wouldn't survive this, but hopefully her partner would have been able to escape. She closed her eyes braced herself for the inevitable stinger attack to connect with her, but it never came. She opened her eyes and looked up. Standing there was Jaune, between her and the Deathstalker, his sword shoved into its carapace, the Grimm twitching and letting out a pained shriek.

As she looked to the sides, Pyrrha saw that the other two Deathstalkers were dead. As the last one collapsed, Jaune pulled out his sword, and turned to face Pyrrha. He seemed to stare at her for a moment before sighing and offering her his hand. She took it and he pulled her up to her feet.

"Are you okay? They didn't hurt you, did they?"

Pyrrha shook her head, still a bit surprised by the fact that he had killed the two other Deathstalkers, and so quickly. Now that she thought about it, weren't there five of them before? "I-I'm fine. What about you? Are you alright?"

Jaune nodded. "A bit tired, but no worse for wear." He looked around at the now dissolving Grimm. "We should probably head back to the school now."

Pyrrha just nodded. This guy just went through five deadly Grimm, and his only complaint was that he was a bit tired? What was with this guy?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The two of them walked for a bit, in an uncomfortable silence. Pyrrha had so much that she wanted to say. She wanted to yell at him for being reckless and running off with five Deathstalkers chasing him, she wanted to thank him for saving her, she wanted to ask how he took on the Deathstalkers and why he didn't just kill them back when the first encountered them. But she didn't, because to her surprise, he spoke first.

"It was… reckless of you to follow me."

Pyrrha gave him a frustrated look. He was calling her reckless? "Excuse me? I'm the reckless one? After you run off with five Deathstalkers chasing you? What kind of plan-"

Jaune raised a hand to silence her. It made her pause for a moment, but that was all he needed.

"The enemies we faced were well beyond your skill, and, you could have been killed. But you knew this. You knew that attacking a group of Grimm like that would have probably killed you, yet you still followed me. Why?"

His tone caught Pyrrha off guard. He spoke as if he was a timid child dealing with a stranger.

"What do you mean, why? I thought you needed help."

When he heard this, Jaune stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face Pyrrha.

"But why help me? My life isn't so precious that you should have put your own at risk. You don't even know me." He let out a humorless laugh. "As a matter of fact, if you did, you probably would have rooted for the Grimm. Why risk your life for someone like me?"

"What do you mean someone like you?"

Jaune just sighed.

Pyrrha shook her head, she could figure that out later. "Listen, you're right. I don't know you, but you're my partner, and partners don't abandon each other."

Jaune just stood there for a moment, as if contemplating what she had just said.

"You're right, they don't. Thank you."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When they got back to Beacon, the other six students were surprised to see them mostly unharmed. They would have voiced their surprise, but time was short, and teams were being assigned. Jaune will admit, he didn't care much for the ceremony. It was basically Ozpin saying "Here's your team, here's your acronym, here's your leader, good luck." Jaune didn't really pay much attention until he found himself on stage with Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren.

"Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. Hence forth, you will be team JNPR (Juniper)."

Jaune smirked a bit. These people had some skill, not much, but enough to fight the garden variety Grimm. Maybe being on a team with them wouldn't be so bad.

"Lead by Jaune Arc."

Well, that good mood didn't last long.

 **Authors Note: Now Jaune and the others are officially in Beacon, and things are going to get fun. Sorry for taking so long. I hope this chapter was worth the wait. Thank you for all the kind reviews, follows, and favorites. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter out sooner rather than later. Remember to review if you have any input and thank you for reading!**


	6. An Old Associate of Mine

Chapter Six: An Old Associate of Mine.

He stood there, a single teenage boy, facing an army of what must have been hundreds of elite warriors, all bred to kill. He was covered in lacerations and stab wounds. His wounds sere so numerous and grave that even his shadow was full of holes. His left arm was barely hanging on by a thread. He held it limply at his side, and his nerves screamed out in pain as the weight of his shield threatened to pull his arm clear off. His right arm was covered in gashes, and chunks of it had been bitten off. As horrific as the pain was, he still grasped his sword. He could still fight.

As the honor guard stared at him, they couldn't believe what they saw. The child before them looked as if he had already died, but refused to accept it. A few felt pity for the boy, a few laughed at how easy it would be, but most felt nothing. They thought the young blond was mad, and he very well may have been, but they were ignorant. They were foolish, and they were deluded. They thought that they could keep the boy from his prey.

These warriors, barely human, feared neither death, nor suffering. They had only one purpose, to protect their leader, even at the cost of their lives. The boy would take away their purpose, and show them true terror. He let out an inhuman howl. One so great that the sands around him shifted, and the men facing him knew that this was no normal child.

With that, the boy charged, and blood was spilled.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jaune awoke from his restless slumber, and looked around. It took him a minute to remember where he was. He was in his dorm, with his three team mates all asleep in their beds. The clock on his side table told him it was around four in the morning. He internally groaned. He hated how little sleep he got, but he was up, and now was as good a time to get up as any. He might as well get ready for the day.

He was careful to be silent as he made his way to the dorm's bathroom. He didn't want to wake up his team mates. Waking up your team at four in the morning usually isn't good for morale. After he finished showering, he was careful to avoid looking in the mirror. That wasn't a conversation he wanted to have, and he didn't want to have to pay for smashing another one, or wake up his team. He put on his uniform, his bandanas, and his goggles, and made his way to the library. Hopefully reading something would get his mind off his dreams.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Blake Belladonna was not normally a restless person, but for some reason, she couldn't help but feel uneasy. Something about that Jaune guy rubbed her the wrong way. The way he looked at her, it was like he was watching her. She couldn't see his eyes, but she could feel them on her when he was nearby. She felt like she was prey.

A nearly inaudible click grabbed her attention. It sounded like someone was an early riser. She made her way to the door and peeked outside to see who it was. Of course it was him. Now Blake wanted to just forget she ever saw him leaving his room, and get whatever sleep she could before class, but her curiosity got the better of her. She watched him walk down the hall, and, once he was out of sight, she began to follow him.

It felt like thousands of questions filled her head. Who was he? Why did he seem so familiar? What did he mean when he said that the Deathstalker could have lived? Why did he make her feel so uneasy? How did her know her name? And why does he cover his face?

She shook her head. These questions would have to wait. For now she wanted to see what he was up to. She knew she couldn't just stare at him as he walked, last time she did that, he spotted her in her tree. She doubted he would be as passive as last time if he caught her trailing him.

Following someone she couldn't look at was an interesting challenge, but her heightened sense of hearing made it somewhat trivial. His steps were light, but to her, it was like listening to high heels. She could hear every step, and they told her exactly where he was. After following him for what seemed like hours, but was actually closer to minutes, they arrived at the destination.

Normally, Blake would be happy to visit the library, especially one as well stocked as Beacon, but now wasn't the time for light reading, or so she thought. She did her best to keep focused as he strolled through the aisles, looking for a book to read. It got difficult after he found one and sat down to read it. It was almost unbearable, being so close to so many great works of literature, while spying on someone reading one, and being unable to just pick one of the countless books and reading it. But she had to endure, she could handle it. She had come this far without being caught, and she wasn't about to get distracted now.

"You know, you don't have to hide Miss Belladonna. I'm not going to hurt you."

Well, this was unexpected. Maybe she could pretend she was just doing some really early morning reading, or that she was sleep walking.

"I know you can hear me."

Sighing, she stepped out into the open. Mind as well face this head on, even if it wasn't really her style. Without even turning to look at her, Jaune kicked out a chair across the table from him.

"Have a seat." He gestured to the chair.

What choice did she have? She sat in the chair he so graciously offered her, getting a look at the book he was reading as she did so. "Plushy Making for Idiots." Well, she wasn't expecting that.

"So, Miss Belladonna, what brings you to the library at this hour? I doubt you normally get up at four in the morning to read."

How would he know her habits?

"And you do?"

Jaune shrugged. "I don't sleep much."

"You don't sleep much?"

He simply repeated himself. "I don't sleep much."

That was informative.

"I was… studying." Not a lie, per say.

Jaune chuckled. "While I'm flattered you find me worth studying, I honestly think sleeping would be a better use of your time."

Blake glared at him. "Who said I was studying you?"

"No one, but the fact that you've been following me since I left the dorms is a good indicator. You need to work on your tailing skills."

Ouch. That was a blow to Blake's pride. Her glare intensified. If looks could kill, then Jaune would probably be hospitalized at this moment. Apparently Jaune noticed this.

"Sorry, did I touch a nerve? I apologize. It was never my intention to insult you."

Blake's glare didn't falter. "How did you know my name?"

Jaune lowered his book and looked at her. "Hmm? Caught that, did you? Perceptive, Miss Belladonna, very perceptive."

Blake just repeated her question, slowly this time. "How did you know my name?"

She could practically hear his smile as he spoke. "I could tell you, but where's the fun in that?"

He took out a coin tumbled it between his fingers. He had dexterity, Blake couldn't deny that.

"I'm not here to amuse you. I want to know how you know my name." and what else he knew.

"So it appears we are at an impasse. You want me to give you some information, but I'm not one to do such things for free."

Blake raised an eyebrow at this. "Are you telling me I'll have to pay you to find out what you know about me?" she asked, clearly unimpressed.

Jaune shrugged. "Either that or figure it out yourself."

Blake could feel her eye twitch. Not only was this guy a possible stalker freak, but a greedy one.

"I didn't bring my wallet." She managed to growl out through gritted teeth.

Jaune let out a laugh. "You actually thought I was serious? I don't want your money, Miss Belladonna. No, I have something a bit different in mind, something I think you'll find a bit more agreeable."

While Jaune still made her feel uneasy, Blake felt more annoyance and anger now, and less nervous apprehension.

He stopped playing around with the coin and held it up.

"Heads or tails?"

"What?"

"I'm not really into giving away information, especially when it pertains to me, but I don't mind making a wager. So, here's how this is going to work. You're going to call heads or tails, and I'm going to flip this coin. If it lands on your side, I answer a question, if it doesn't, then you go back to sleep and trust that I'm not out to get you. So, heads or tails?"

Blake was once again confused, but she didn't really have much to lose. "Tails."

Jaune couldn't help but chuckle. He mumbled under his breath, "Of course."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'Of course'?"

Jaune ignored her question and flipped the coin. "Tails. What's your first question?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jaune couldn't help but yawn. Professor Port's class was not exactly what he would call exciting. The mustached gentleman would drone on and on about how he killed some Grimm in some spectacular fashion. Normally, Jaune would enjoy stories like this, but Professor Port managed to turn what was no doubt an exciting adventure, into a good replacement for sleeping pills.

On the plus side, the professor didn't bother him about his mask, which was more then he could say about his teammates. The wanted to know why he covered his face, why he wasn't in his bed this morning, why he didn't want to answer their questions. The fact that they had didn't get the hint was somewhat bothersome to Jaune, but it was far from the worst thing he'd been forced to deal with.

From the looks of it, he wasn't the only one who seemed to be somewhat dissatisfied with how his team was acting. Weiss looked like she was going to blow a blood vessel, and Ruby looked like she was causing it. It was amusing to watch, but he doubted it would last long. The Schnee heiress looked like she was about to burst, and when she did, it probably wasn't going to be pretty. On the bright side, it looked like the professors story was wrapping up.

"Do any of you believe that you exemplify these traits?"

Unsurprisingly, it was Weiss that answered. "I do!"

Jaune just shook his head. What did she think this was going to prove? It's not like Professor Port would see her fight and demand that Ozpin change things so she's team leader based on that. Honestly, this just seemed like a waste of effort. It was no secret that the heiress wanted to be team leader, but she was far too stiff. Adaptability was one of the key components of leading, and from the looks of it, Weiss was somewhat lacking in that aspect.

As Weiss left the room to get ready, Jaune thought of what he knew about the Heiress and how she fought. He recalled that she used glyphs and was a fencer, much like the other members of the Schnee family. As Weiss reentered the room, in her combat gear, Jaune watched closely. Seeing how she acted would be educational.

As Weiss reentered the room, Jaune took note of her weapon. A six chambered dust rapier, interesting, but not unexpected. Her attire seemed to be somewhat sub optimal for combat. The combat skirt did allow her freedom of movement, but if not careful, it could get caught on something, and the high heels would likely cause maneuvering to be more difficult, as well as the added height making her a slightly larger target.

Jaune was soon pulled by his musings by a loud cheer from the rest of team RWBY. While supportive, a loud, sudden noise would be more distracting then helpful at this point. From the looks of it, Weiss would agree. She gave her team an angry look, and walked over to the center of the room.

She had a certain confidence about her, a type of sophisticated assurance. Jaune doubted that it would last long. In his experience, there were two kinds of confident people, the ones who earned confidence, and the ones who were going to have it ripped out of them. He seriously doubted she was experienced enough to be the first kind.

No doubt she had extensive combat training and studies, as was customary of an heiress, but practice and studies were no substitute for experience. Sturm would never let her go into a real battle. In all honesty, Jaune was somewhat surprised that he even let her come to Beacon. He doubted Weiss knew it, but her father was somewhat obsessive when it came to his children's safety. He couldn't count how many times he hired Jaune and his team to "take care" of "potential dangers" and "possible threats." In all fairness, though, about ninety eight percent of the time, the targets were really bad people.

Slavers, murderers, corrupt and racist politicians, Jaune had to admit, when Sturm gave him a target, he rarely had to feel guilty. That's part of the reason he like having him as a client, that and he paid very well. But for the moment, that was beside the point. Professor Port was opening the cage, and a Boarbatusk was about to charge.

Watching Weiss fight was interesting, but overall, unsurprising. She moved with the grace of a dancer, and the elegance of an aristocrat. It was to be expected, after all, that is how aristocrats trained. Usually striving to look good at all times, even if it lead to a fighting style that was more form over function.

The fact that she was so easily distracted by her team was unfortunate, and her reluctance to accept help would most likely be problematic, especially since she was part of a team. She actually seemed to be having a bit of difficulty with the Boarbatusk as a result of her aforementioned problems. She managed to finally defeat the Grimm, but in all honesty, Jaune found the fight unimpressive. Weiss had a long way to go.

One thing that most of the hunters in training had in common was while they had some modicum skill, the fact that they knew they were above the average civilian usually lead to them being somewhat overconfident. It was lucky that they were fighting Grimm, because people are usually less forgiving.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was a few minutes after class that Jaune saw Ruby. She seemed depressed, and for Jaune, this was somewhat problematic. Internally he was arguing with himself over whether or not he should go over and see what's wrong, and risk her getting closer to him, or leave her alone, and depressed. He sighed and made his way over to her.

"Hello Ruby. Is something wrong?"

Ruby glanced at him, her eyes filled with sorrow and doubt, a look Jaune knew all too well. "Hi Jaune… No, it's nothing."

Even through his mask and goggles, Ruby could see that Jaune wasn't buying it.

"Weiss told me I wasn't a good leader, and I think she's right. I don't think I'm ready for all of this."

Jaune frowned at the idea of the heiress insulting Ruby because Ozpin didn't make her the team leader instead. Envy is such an ugly thing. He thought for a moment, then he took out a knife and handed it to Ruby.

"Here you go."

Ruby looked at Jaune, then the knife, then back to Jaune. Her look of sorrow was now replaced with a look of confusion. She was always happy to get a new weapon, even if it was a simple one, but she preferred to know why. "Umm, thanks for the knife, but what's it for?"

Beneath his mask, Jaune smirked. "When I was growing up, one of the first things my mentor told me was 'if you have a knife, you're ready for almost anything.' So now you should be ready."

Ruby looked at him in disbelief for a moment, before she burst out laughing.

"I don't think that this is what your mentor had in mind."

Jaune shrugged. "Yeah, well she was somewhat eccentric. I wouldn't be surprised if this was exactly what she had in mind."

He put a hand on her shoulder. "Listen Ruby, people are rarely prepared for most of the situations they find themselves in, but they adapt. They grow into the roles they are given, and I'm sure you will too. Give it time, and I know you'll be a great leader someday."

When she heard this, Ruby smiled. Something about his words rang true with her. "Thanks, Jaune."

Unbeknownst to both of them, Ozpin was listening in from around the corner, a smirk on his face. "Well, it looks like she was right, there may be hope for him yet."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I need work."

Junior just stared at the masked kid on the barstool in front of him. First time he's back since the incident and those are his first words. Some things never changed. He let out a sigh and chuckled a bit.

"Good to see you too, Jaune. Are you sure you're alright to work?"

His response was almost instant. "I'm fine, but I'd be better if I had a job."

Junior rolled his eyes. "Seriously kid? A regular person, even a hunter, would still be in the hospital. Besides, it's getting late. Don't you have class or something tomorrow? Go home and go to bed"

He could feel Jaune glaring at him through his goggles. "I'm fine. I don't need sleep, I need a job."

"Then go apply for one at that book store. I'm sure the owner could find something for you to do."

He couldn't see it, but he could tell that Jaune's eye was twitching. Apparently being out of the game for the last few months had him wound up, and that was always fun.

"Not that kind of job. I need something to keep me from getting rusty. The Grimm here are mediocre at best. I need a challenge."

Oh, the opportunity was just too perfect. A devious smile spread across Junior's face. "If you need a challenge, then why don't you finally get a girlfriend? People have been saying you need a girlfriend for, what, twelve years now?"

"P-people were not saying I needed a girlfriend when I was five!"

Junior just laughed. That never failed to get a rise out of the kid. Feeling like he had his fun, he decided to throw the kid a bone, so to speak.

"Alright, alright. I have one for you, and I think you'll like it. It's not to challenging, but it'll get the blood flowing."

Jaune looked at him expectantly, still obviously a bit upset from the teasing.

Junior continued. "A warehouse by the docks is being used as a hideout for a gang. Now these guy are scum. They call themselves 'Animal Control' and have a history of violent activity against Faunus and Faunus sympathizers. Word is that they recently decided to move into Faunus trafficking."

Jaune's fists clenched as he heard this. Faunus trafficking? Those worms were going to die.

"Needless to say, people want these guys gone. The thing is, they seem to have some friends in law enforcement, so if you take the job, you'll have to do it the old fashion way."

That made Jaune smile. In a situation like this, old fashion meant avoid being identified, so no personalized weapons, and avoid showing your face. Those jobs were always fun, and they were easy to prepare for.

After a few moments, Jaune spoke. "Who's the client, and what's the pay?"

Down to business, as always. Junior hid a smirk, some things never changed. "The client is one of the enemies they made in law enforcement, the type they couldn't bribe, so they threatened. The pay is the standard fee. It's supposed to be for a group job, but I think you'll be able to handle it."

Jaune nodded. "Is this a onetime thing, or will there be more jobs dealing with these guys?"

"There will be more. These guys are loud and proud. Given enough time, they'll recover, but as long as you clear them out of the warehouse, you'll get paid."

There were a few seconds of silence before Jaune spoke. "Are any of them marked?"

A serious air seemed to descend on the two the moment Jaune asked this.

Junior shook his head. "We don't have word of any of them being marked, but we have reason to believe that some of them might be working towards it. And their leader shows signs of it."

A predatory smile crossed Jaune's face. One of them being there would make things interesting. "Sounds fun… I'm in."

Junior took out his scroll and pressed its screen a few times. "I thought you might be. I'll notify the right people and get the job verified. But do me a favor, kid. Don't push yourself too hard, and don't do anything stupid."

Jaune gave out a small laugh. "Look at who you're talking to. Do you really think I'll do something stupid, Junior?"

The response was an immediate "Yes."

Jaune responded by giving Junior an unimpressed look, and they were both silent for a few moments, before they both started laughing.

"Alright, alright. I'll be careful."

"You better. You-know-who will have my you-know-what if anything happens to you on a job I gave you."

Jaune shrugged. "I make no promises, but I'll try not to get horribly mangled, for your sake."

"That's all I ask."

Jaune's scroll beeped a few times, indicating that the job was ready. He gave Junior a nod and made his way out of the bar.

Once he was outside, Junior took out his scroll and began dialing. There was a ring, then a second, then a third. Then Junior heard a tired voice.

"H-hello?"

"Hey Velvet. It's Junior."

He could practically hear her perk up.

"Oh! Junior. What can I do for you? Do you have another special job offer?"

Velvet did love those specialty jobs.

"Sorry for calling so late, and no, I don't. But I thought you might want to know… He's back in the game."

There was a pregnant pause, which was soon broken by a tired sigh from the rabbit Faunus.

"So he already went to you for a job?"

"Yeah. He literally just left."

He heard a giggle on the other side.

"That was fast. He's been here literally less than a week. Was it anything high end?"

Junior shook his head, despite the fact Velvet couldn't see it. "No. Just a simple clearing mission. You know, racist gang, poorly armed, untrained, at most one marked. I didn't give him anything too hard. He's still on probation, you know."

He could basically hear Velvet deflate at the mention of Jaune's probation. "I know. I should probably watch him. Where's the job?"

"Warehouse by the harbor, supposed to be under renovation, has a big five on it. I'll send the details to your scroll."

"Thanks Junior."

"No problem. Keep an eye on the kid, he might still be a bit… unstable."

There was a sigh.

"Yeah, I know, but whenever he's working he seems content. Right now, that might be all we can ask for."

Junior gave a sigh of his own. The kid had been through a lot, and, in all honesty, he felt sorry for him. He was soon jostled out of his thoughts by Velvet.

"By the way, is that assassination job still open?"

"The mobster one? Yeah, why? You change your mind about it?"

The mobster job had been open for a few weeks, but no one took it because the target was… eccentric, to say the least.

"Let's just say, I think I have a plan."

Something about the way she said that made Junior shiver. Her plans usually had a high body count and lots of property damage. But she got the job done, even if she did incinerate that ice cream truck that one time. That was a dark day.

"Okay. I'll set things up. You should get the info in a couple of days. Good luck."

 **Authors Note: Sorry it took so long. I did my best to improve upon my previous chapters, and I hope it worked. What Blake asked Jaune and what he answered will be revealed soon enough. Before that though, I have a few questions. Would everyone be okay with this fic becoming M-rated? I think sooner or later it's going to get too dark for a T-rating, but if everyone is okay with it, I can bump it up to an M by next chapter. Also, what is everyone's opinion on OCs? Is it okay if I eventually add a few? Please review with any advice and criticism. Thanks for reading.**


	7. Knock Knock

Chapter Seven: Knock Knock.

He was too slow. That's how Jaune felt, and he intended on fixing it. His philosophy was blocking was good, parrying was better, but dodging was best. He could block nearly any attack, parry most of them if needed, but his dodging was (at least by his standards) subpar. Lucky, a job like this would be good practice.

Go in, kill them all, and don't get hit. That was always a fun challenge, also he doubted that a gang like this would have too much in the way of heavy weapons. Most likely some low grade hunter weapons, some old or improvised ones, and not a lot of guns. Though the fact that they had decided to move into Faunus trafficking meant that they had to have something.

He got dressed in some conspicuously inconspicuous clothes. A hoodie, some jeans, and sneakers. He switched out his bandannas for a single store bought one over his face, but kept his goggles. He looked kind of like a rioter or anarchist. Basically he looked like he was up to no good.

As he arrived in the area, he looked at the building. An old warehouse in disrepair, giant number five on it, a series of docks for the delivery and pickup of cargo, and very few windows. Looking in a few of those windows from across the street, it became clear that there wasn't much inside other than the gang members. Mostly it looked like the main floor was a large open area with an office overlooking the floor.

From his count, there were about twenty guys in there. Poorly armed and likely untrained. This would be too easy, at least that's what Jaune thought until the group's leader walked out. A large guy, basically a mountain of meat, probably a lieutenant in the gang or something. It wasn't his size that caught Jaune's eye, a white mark he had on his bald head. Like a piece of exposed skull. That was one of the signs of being marked.

He sent a few messages on his scroll to inform the higher ups. At least it was barely even a phase one. Encountering a marked one was always problematic, but also usually fun. As he continued to survey the building, he found a good entry point. A small door in the back, probably an emergency exit or service entrance.

He had an entrance, a general idea of how many targets there were, and a plan of attack, now all he needed was a weapon. He looked around and spotted a length of pipe fixed to the wall, a wooden pallet on the ground, and an old trash can that had fallen over. He didn't want to rifle through the trash, and the quality of the wooden pallet looked suspect at best, so using a plank from it was out.

Jaune tore the length of pipe off the wall. It was about as long as a baseball bat, and heavy enough to give quite the headache. It would work perfectly. Now all he needed was an entrance strategy, and he had a great one. He made a few last minute preparations with the trash can, the pallet, and his scroll, then walked up to the service entrance, and knocked on the door.

He waited a few moments, and then knocked again. Seriously? No answer? Leaving the back door unguarded was a rookie mistake. He sighed and waited, tapping his foot on the ground a bit. He knocked on the door again, but this time there was an answer.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Keep your shirt on."

The voice was coarse and harsh, accompanied by an angry stomping. Jaune simply moved out of view of the door and waited for it to open. "Who is it? I swear, if this is a prank, I'll find you and bash your head in!"

A tall, lanky man opened the door, he was holding a baseball bat at the ready, and from the looks of it, and he was going to bash in the head of whoever was knocking at the door. That and the fact that he said he would.

The gang member was probably expecting to see a person when he answered the door, maybe a drunk bum, maybe a kid on a dare, what he didn't expect to see was a trash can with a wooden pallet balanced on it. He saw a soft light coming from something on top of the pallet and took a few steps forward, out into the alley, with his bat ready.

Someone had left their scroll on the makeshift table. He picked it up and looked at the screen, and on it were two words.

"Metal Pipe? What does that mean?"

He stared at the scroll for a moment, then it hit him.

Jaune couldn't help but smile as he heard the crack of the man's skull shattering from the force of the blow. The guy fell to the ground with a sickening thud, and Jaune bent over and recovered his scroll. Unable to help himself, he spoke to the dead man.

"Know what it means now?"

He chuckled to himself as he wiped the gore off his scroll and pocketed it. Now he had a way in. With a wicked smile on his face, he rushed in the door.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Velvet couldn't help but smile as she watched Jaune smash the gang members head open. He was enjoying himself, and that was somewhat rare nowadays. Honestly, at the moment, she was a bit envious. She wished she could be there smashing heads in too, but it was probably better that she kept her distance, this time.

It looked like Jaune had recovered from his injury pretty well, if the fact he had just shattered a man's spine was any indication. He was swatting away those racist gang members like flies. She pitied the poor guy who had to clean up that mess.

She couldn't help but laugh as he hit one guys chin so hard that their head popped off and hit the ceiling. She wished she could take a picture, but taking a picture of what was basically a massacre was generally frowned upon, especially since this was a low profile job.

Velvet did have to admit, this was a lot lower profile then any of her recent jobs. No explosions, no fires, no escaped zoo animals, this was pretty tame by her standards, then again, so was Jaune. He had tons of blood lust, but he was pretty straight laced.

The only time he seemed to relax was when he was mowing down targets, and it was usually pretty basic. He would use something he found, or took from one of the targets, and kill everyone. That was it. It was professional, but it was unhealthy. Replace murder with office work, and Jaune was the guy who lived in his cubicle because it was more productive. Jaune lived for his work, but he really needed a hobby, or a girlfriend.

Getting him a girlfriend. There was an idea. From what she observed, he was surrounded by potential candidates. He seemed fond of that Ruby girl, and his partner seemed to care about him, also the cat girl was also a strong candidate.

Velvet could just imagine the situation. A grizzled mercenary, and an outcast that left her old group behind. At first they don't like each other, but then they learn that they aren't so different. He's afraid to step outside the only life he's ever known, but she shows him that it can be done, and he's not alone. Then they kiss, in the rain, while dramatic music plays in the background.

Then the both rush inside, soaking wet. They decide to remove their wet clothes in order to avoid getting sick, and one thing leads to another…

Velvet couldn't help but giggle as she imagined different situations, her face heating up a bit. If Jaune could see what she was thinking, he would probably pass out. Poor kid was kind of a prude. Despite the fact that he killed people on a regular basis, he was actually pretty shy, especially when it came to relationships.

But getting Jaune a girlfriend would have to wait, he was about to take on the marked thug.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Up to this point, the job had been pretty straight forward. He ran in, smashed a guy's head against the wall, swung the pipe around, being sure to break something with every swing, killed most of the gang members, and even decapitated one guy, but now was the real challenge. The marked gang member. The guy was massive, about twice the height of everyone else there, all of it muscle.

It was lucky this guy was still a phase one, otherwise this would be a real pain.

"Who the hell are you!?"

Well, the giant could talk, and he wasn't happy.

Jaune chuckled a bit. "You're that a member of that gang, 'Animal Control', right? Well I'm nobody important. I'm just a concerned citizen."

The giant raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "A concerned citizen? Are you freaking kidding me?"

Jaune shook his head. "I kid you not. I'm worried about the people you've been moving through here."

The giant laughed. "They aren't people, they're animals. What, are you a member of some animal rights group or something?"

Jaune narrowed his eyes. While the action was hidden by his goggles, his tone gave away his displeasure. "They're people. Just like you or me."

The giant smiled. He was getting under Jaune's skin. "It sounds like we've got an animal lover here. Listen kid, they aren't people, they're barely even animals. They're freaks, monsters that shouldn't exist. If you ask me, we're doing them a favor. Instead of exterminating the freaks, we're giving them a chance to be useful. If anything, they should thanks us for finding a use for such disgusting creatures."

The more he spoke, the more anger seeped into his voice. He gripped his weapon tightly. It was a large sledge hammer, and Jaune wouldn't be surprised if it was a trick weapon like so many people had nowadays.

Jaune sighed and shook his head at the massive gang member. "I can tell that talking to a small minded thug like you was a waste of time. And here I was hoping you might have something interesting to say before I killed you."

The giant let out a cruel laugh. "What? You? Kill me? A little punk walks in off the street, kills a bunch of worthless thugs, and thinks he's good enough to kill me. You're too big for your boots, kid."

The giant swung his hammer and slammed it down on the ground, causing the entire warehouse to quake.

"But that's fine by me. I get to smash a freak."

Jaune shook his head. "I'm too big for my boots? Just because you're marked, doesn't mean you're invincible."

The giant's eyes widened at this. "How do you-"

Jaune didn't give him time to respond. He rushed forward and slammed the pipe into the side of one of the giants shin, causing him to wince.

The giant swung his hammer in an attempt to swat Jaune away, but Jaune just ducked under the blow and whacked his shin again. From the grimace the man gave, Jaune guessed the leg must have at least a hairline fracture by now.

The giant lifted his hammer and attempted to smash Jaune into the ground, but Jaune sidestepped it. The ground shook and the warehouse quivered from the force of the impact, but Jaune ignored it and struck the giant in the shin again.

Normally he would have gone for the head, but with how large this guy was, it would be more effective to break his legs first. That, and Jaune wanted this guy to hurt. Slavers like him deserved every moment of suffering they got.

Another quick strike to the man's shin was punctuated by a cracking noise. That hairline fracture must have become a full break by this point.

The giant cursed and fell down on one knee. He was closer to the ground, but that still wasn't good enough. He swung at Jaune again, trying to knock his legs out from under him, but Jaune simply leapt over the blow.

The giant was strong, but he was slow. If he really wanted to, Jaune could literally run circles around this guy before each hit, and the large gang member wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

He struck the giant in the side of the face. Blood and a few teeth flew out, as the giant adopted a shocked expression.

Taking advantage of his shocked and disoriented state, he hit the giants head again, and again, and again.

He just continued to wail on the man's head until the giant collapsed onto his side. Jaune let out a sigh and clicked his tongue as he walked up to the mostly destroyed head of the marked one. "Disappointing. I thought you'd be more of a challenge."

Through his mouth full of blood, and broken teeth, one side caved in, the giant managed to gargle out a single question. "Wh-who are you?"

Jaune smiled and lifted the pipe above his head. "I told you. I'm nobody important."

He then proceeded to reduce the giants head to a stain on the floor, and then he continued to attack the body. He continued until he was basically slamming a pipe against wet concrete. Then he stopped and he burst out laughing. He laughed, and he laughed, and he laughed. "So much for animal control! I've had harder times killing rats then these guys."

He looked around at the fruits of his labor. The warehouse, which was a dull gray, was now coated in crimson. The gang member laid dead or dying. Needless to say, there wasn't going to be another gang using this place as a base anytime soon.

Jaune let out a whistle. "I sure did a number on this place."

He took out his scroll and began to message Junior about how the mission was complete. At least, he was, until he realized he forgot to charge his scroll. He slammed his fist into the side of a container in frustration, and to his surprise, the container responded. Its response was a whimper, followed by a whispered command to "Hush!"

Sighing, Jaune walked over to the container and pried it open with his pipe. He was greeted by a large group of terrified Faunus. He looked at them, and they stared at him. For the Faunus, it was terrifying, for Jaune, it was awkward.

After a few moments of silence, Jaune spoke. "Um, I don't suppose any of you have a spare charger."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day was like any other. There was some news of a massacre, but the media just wrote it off as gang violence. After all, Animal Control was not without enemies. While the brutality of the attack was unsettling, the only witnesses were Faunus, delirious with hunger, terrified out of their minds, talking about some guy that needed a scroll charger.

One or two of the students at Beacon spoke about it, but otherwise, it was mostly ignored. For that Jaune was thankful. However, he had to admit, it was good to be back.

He sat there on the roof enjoying his lunch of one of his military rations. Oh, how he enjoyed his military rations. They had all the vitamins and minerals his body needed. Unfortunately, they tasted like dirt. While Jaune despised the taste, and would rather cook something himself, he still had three years' worth of the rations left, and he really didn't want them to go to waste. He really shouldn't have bought them in bulk.

Maybe Velvet would take some.

"Looks like you had fun last night."

Speak of the devil.

"You really made a mess of the place. I mean, I thought the job was to clear the place out, not give it a paint job."

Jaune chuckled. "Well, it's not my fault they had so much blood. Besides, they'll have to hose the place down anyway. I mean a place like that couldn't have been clean to begin with."

Velvet rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure it was just covered in bone shards and grey matter when you got there. Though I have to ask, was destroying the body like that really necessary?"

Jaune swallowed another bite of his ration. "You tell me. You really want to leave things up to chance with a marked?"

Velvet nodded. "Fair enough. I guess it never hurts to be careful, but I think it freaked out the Faunus you saved."

Jaune raised an eyebrow, which, despite his mask and goggles, Velvet noticed. She sighed and explained.

"They could still hear you going to town on the body from inside the container, and I seriously doubt they missed seeing the mangled corpse on the way out."

Jaune let out a laugh. "Yeah, I guess that would be hard to miss. I wonder if any of them noticed the dent I put in the ceiling."

Velvet couldn't help but join him laughing. "Alright, I have to admit, the way you popped that guy's head off was pretty funny. Feels good to be back, doesn't it?"

Jaune nodded. "It does. I've missed it. Something about going up against people is just so much more satisfying then fighting Grimm." A smile spread across his face. "I think it's all the emotions and reactions. Grimm don't have that, they just growl and attack. People react, they run, they scream, they try to find a way to fight back. It's so much more fun." At this point, he was practically shaking.

Velvet put a hand on his shoulder. "Dial it back a bit, Jaune. Keep your head on straight."

He took a deep breath, then nodded. "Sorry. Lost myself for a moment."

Velvet ruffled his hair through his bandanna. "It's fine. I know you can't help it."

Jaune let out a sigh, then tried to change the subject by offering Velvet some food. "Ration? They're good for you."

Velvet gave him a deadpan look. "Don't those taste like dirt?"

He simply repeated himself. "They're good for you."

Velvet pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned. "You bought in bulk again, didn't you?"

"I bought three years' worth. They were on sale." There was a silence for a good minute or so as Velvet processed this information. "They're good for you."

Velvet sighed and shook her head. "Fine, I'll take one."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This was an interesting, but not unexpected, situation. As Ozpin watched the news story play, he took a sip of his coffee, and took stock of what had happened.

"Starting work again at the first opportunity. He really can't help himself."

He looked over some of the files that the news had released onto the net, as well as some of the files that the guild sent him. There were about twenty casualties, one of them marked, and minimal property damage.

There was no real evidence of who did it, other than the Faunus witnesses, and people were slow to believe them. It was exactly what he expected of Jaune's return, messy, but efficient.

Ozpin looked through some files on his computer to see if there were any other jobs he could send to Junior. Honestly, he wasn't sure what to expect when he got Jaune's application and file, but quite frankly it was more of the same as any other time a mercenary enrolled in Beacon.

It was rather simple overseeing their progress, but Ozpin had to admit, Jaune's case was a troubling one. The very fact that he was alive was astonishing, but he was still highly unstable. Ozpin would have to keep a close eye on him. But for now, he had a school to run.

 **Authors Note: So, I hope that this chapter was adequate. I'm sorry it took so long, and I'll try to update faster in the future. Once again, more will be revealed in the future chapters. Any advice or constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. But for now, I have a few questions for the readers. What are your thoughts on character death? In light of recent events, I'd like to know how everyone feels about the idea of characters dying, and if they would be okay with it in the story. And how dark should this be? It may be dark now, but depending on how people respond, the tone may be darker. Basically, should this be Jaune's ascent, or descent? Personally, I like happy endings, but I'd like to see how everyone else would like this to go. Thanks for reading, and please review, and once again, any advice and constructive criticism would be appreciated. Thanks again, and hopefully I'll have the next chapter out soon.**


	8. Undecided

Chapter Eight: Undecided.

For the next week, things had been routine. During the day, Jaune went to his classes, and none of his teachers bothered him about his mask or goggles, and he was never called on to fight in combat class, because his level of skill would probably raise too many questions, and there was always the risk that he might get carried away. Luckily, none of the students had caught on or called out the fact that he hadn't fought yet.

After dark, he would catch the last dust plane to Vale, and make a few extra lien doing jobs, then catch the first dust plane back to Beacon.

It was a nice routine, and it helped Jaune keep himself occupied, and while it didn't leave any time for sleep, that suited him just fine. It wasn't like he slept much anyway.

Jaune was content with the little routine he had made for himself, but today it was interrupted by a call to visit Miss Goodwitch's office. That lead to his current situation.

"Do you know why I called you here, Mr. Arc?"

He shrugged. "I broke curfew?"

Glynda Goodwitch shook her head. The faculty was privy to his line of work, though not all of them approved, for obvious reasons.

"No, Mr. Arc. This isn't about your… nocturnal activities."

Jaune thought for a bit. It wasn't his job, maybe it was his weapons?

"Is it because I keep a large number of heavy explosives in the dorm?"

She shook her head again and sighed. How many rules did this kid break?

"No, though you should probably keep them somewhere else. Especially since you share the dorm with Miss Valkyrie."

Another few seconds of silence passed. Glynda couldn't help but wonder 'Really? He has to think about it?'

"Is it because of the gambling ring I'm running out of the back of the workshop? Because Professor Ozpin allowed that, as long as the school gets a cut."

Glynda couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that.

"No… But we should probably come back to that. The reason I called you here is because of your team."

Now it was Jaune's turn to raise an eyebrow. "My team?"

She nodded. "I have received complaints from them about how you seem to be neglecting your duties as team leader."

Jaune tilted his head a bit, before asking, "Oh? How so?"

Glynda let out another sigh. "For one thing, your team says that you are never around. They see you in some classes, but after that, you seem to disappear. You can't be team leader and be absent all the time."

Jaune simply shrugged. "I fail to see how that's a problem."

"It's a problem, Mr. Arc, because it's your responsibility. You are the team leader, so you have to be with them. You can't be a team leader if you aren't part of a team, and you can't be part of a team if you refuse to make contact with your teammates."

His reply was timely, but monotone, emotionless. "Once again, I fail to see how that's a problem."

"Your team needs a leader, Mr. Arc, and Professor Ozpin selected you to lead team JNPR."

"A choice that I believe we both disapprove of."

Glynda removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I don't disapprove of his decision, Mr. Arc. I trust his judgement. What I disapprove of, is your blatant disregard for it. He chose you for a reason, Mr. Arc, and I believe you can be a great leader for your team."

Jaune shook his head. "Yeah, I'm not really fit for another management position. I honestly think it would be best if he just made one of the other three the leader. Maybe even all three of them."

Glynda couldn't help but deadpan, "While I'm sure that would solve lots of problems and have no ill effects whatsoever, that's not going to happen, Mr. Arc."

He couldn't help but smirk beneath his mask. He so enjoyed sarcasm.

"Then we are at an impasse. I don't want to lead, but you say I have to. For the sake of argument, let's say I decided to embrace the position of leader. Let's say I opened up to my team, that I was completely honest with them, and told them exactly who I am and what I do. I'd bet that they'd either petition to have me expelled, or request transfers to new teams."

So he had thought of it…

"Listen, Mr. Arc, I'm not saying you walk up to them and tell them you kill people for money, I'm just saying you should spend time with them. Study with them, train with them, even just talk with them. I'm not saying you have to do anything ground-breaking, I'm just asking you try to be sociable."

There was a pause as Jaune considered his options, then he answered. "I'm not going to make any promises, but I'll think about it."

Glynda let out another sigh, this time of relief. "Thank you, Mr. Arc."

"Don't. Don't thank me. I said I'd consider it, not that I would do it."

Well, it was still progress, sort of.

"I'll take what I can get. Now, tell me about this gambling ring you're running."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ruby was having a good day. Ever since her little talk with Jaune last week, things had been looking up. Weiss was being nice to her, she got a good score on her last test, and they even had fresh cookies in the cafeteria! Now she was in her dorm, relaxing and enjoying looking at a nice weapons magazine (she reads it for the articles, she swears). Everything was coming up Ruby.

She absentmindedly ran a finger across the knife she had strapped to her thigh and sighed. She wondered what happened to him. Other than the occasional sighting in class, he was practically a ghost. It was too bad. She really liked him. As a friend. Not romantically. Not that she thought Jaune would be a bad boyfriend, actually, someone who liked guns as much as him would probably be an interesting boyfriend. It's just that she wasn't really looking for a significant other yet.

Putting the magazine down for a moment, she took out the knife and took a good look at it. It was a fairly standard steel combat knife. Well balanced, some serration on the blade, and a clip point. While she wasn't much of a knife user, Ruby could appreciate a well-made tool, and this was one fine knife. She wasn't sure that it prepared her for nearly anything, though.

"Hey Rubes. What's up?"

She was quickly pulled from her thoughts by a greeting from Yang.

"Oh, Hi Yang! Nothing much."

Yang nodded before asking, "What's with the knife? You thinking of branching out your fighting style?"

Ruby shook her head. She was already good with her baby, and passable with swords. She doubted she would have much need for a knife.

"No, just looking it over. It's really a good knife."

Yang nodded. It was a pretty typical knife, but it looked nice and sturdy.

"That's nice. Did you dip into your cookie fund to buy it?"

Ruby shook her head again. She liked weapons, but she wasn't about to use her cookie fund for one. "No. It was a gift from a friend."

That got Yang's attention. "Oh, a gift from a friend? Does that friend happen to be a boy?"

Ruby nodded. "He is, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Yang couldn't help but giggle a bit. "I think my little sister has an admirer!"

Now Yang was fiercely protective of her little sister, especially when it came to boys, but teasing her was an opportunity that was too good to pass up.

As Ruby began to blush and stutter, Yang couldn't help but push a bit more.

"So, does my little sisters boyfriend have a name?" It was best if she found out the guy's name now, that way she could have a proper 'discussion' with him about his intentions with her little sister. Even if he wasn't Ruby's boyfriend, it couldn't hurt to be proactive.

"Jaune is not my boyfriend!"

And like that, the smile dropped off of Yang's face.

"Jaune? The weirdo in the mask?"

Ruby nodded.

"Y-yeah. But you shouldn't call him a weirdo. He's nice. We spoke after Professor Port's class and he told me that I was going to be a great leader someday, then he gave me this knife."

Yang's mouth formed a hard line and her eyes narrowed. Was this guy trying to recruit Ruby?

"Listen Ruby, you should stay away from that guy."

Ruby couldn't help but tilt her head to the side, confusion written on her face.

"Huh? Why?"

"Trust me, Ruby. I've seen his type thousands of times before, and that guy's nothing but trouble."

"Yang, just because a guy wears a mask, doesn't make him trouble. For all we know, he might be some sort of super hero with a reverse secret identity!"

"A reverse secret identity?" This conversation was degenerating fast.

"Yeah! Like, he wears the mask, but if he wants to disappear, all he has to do is take it off! And if someone says it's probably the guy in the mask, then he can just wear a different mask, or mention how they're discriminating against masked people!" As she explained, Ruby couldn't help but wave her hands around wildly. She'd love to meet a super hero.

To Yang, this was proof of a few things. One, that Ruby wasn't going to avoid this guy just because she asked her to, two, that her sister still had some pretty out-there theories about the world around her, and three, she really needed to cut back on the cookies.

"Listen Ruby. I'm sure he's probably into some bad stuff. I can feel it."

Ruby sighed and put her hands on Yang's shoulders and looked her right in the eyes. "Listen Yang. I know you worry about me, but I really don't think he's a bad person. You have to trust me to make decisions and meet people on my own. So please, trust me."

Yang took a deep breath, and nodded.

"Alright, I'll trust you. Just… Be careful around him. He's hiding something, and I'm pretty sure it isn't that he's a super hero…"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Neo was having a busy day. A bunch of seemingly random gang members were getting killed and it was upsetting quite a few of Roman's clients. Now, normally, this would upset Neo, there being a lot of dead people in what seemed to be random gang targeted murders, and her not being involved, but this time, she was alright with it. All of these murders seemed to be done by a single person, and they were professional, brutal, and merciless. Three things that Neo was really liked.

She was currently doing some research on the killer and snooping around the sight of his latest massacre. Now most people didn't know it, but Neopolitan was actually pretty skilled at forensic investigation. It only made sense to her that if she loved violence, and it was her job, she should learn about all the details in it.

As she looked over the carnage, she couldn't help but smile. Most of the guys were killed in one hit, or at the very least incapacitated. Lots of broken bone and torn muscles. There was blood all over the place, along with bone fragments and other assorted viscera. The killer was physically strong, apparently fast enough to avoid getting hit, and not squeamish.

That was the problem with most people nowadays is they were so squeamish. Even Roman looked sick last time he saw a massacre like this. With all the aura and attempts to keep people from attracting Grimm with negative emotions, things sometimes felt a bit muted to the short lady, but seeing something like this? It was refreshing.

Though one thing was still a bit mystifying to Neo. Most of the people there were killed quickly. A single blow to the head, a puncture to the torso, or a broken neck, but some of the bodies were utterly destroyed. One had been crushed into a paste, while another looked like it had been ripped apart by a wild animal. A third body had literally been splattered on the wall, like a balloon made of meat.

The ferocity of these mutilations were on a completely different level from the other kills. It's as if after killing the others, the killer returned to them just to make sure they were dead. In all honesty, the three bodies were destroyed beyond recognition. As much as Neo could appreciate overkill, the fact that these three were chose to die left her wondering why. What connection did these three people have that made them targets?

One thing was certain, Neo wanted to meet the architect of this carnage. She wanted to meet a kindred spirit, someone who wasn't just skilled in the art of the kill, but someone who clearly enjoyed it. She could practically smell the bloodlust in the room, and it was intoxicating.

She wanted to know who this killer was, and if previous targets were any indication, she knew where they were going to be tonight…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If she was being completely honest, Blake was not having a good day. She was worried. Jaune knew something about her. Their little talk told her almost nothing, other than the fact that he knew much more than he was letting on.

" _Who… What are you?" she asked him as he eyed the coin in his hands._

 _He chuckled. "What indeed. That's a question I often ask myself now-a-days. I don't think human's the right word anymore." Blake couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this. "I think the most… satisfying answer that I can give you at this time is… an old acquaintance."_

" _I've never met you before."_

 _She could see the smile through his mask. It was parted in such a way that she could see his full toothed grin through the gap between the second and third bandannas._

" _You never met me as Jaune Arc."_

 _Never met him as Jaune Arc? What, did this guy have multiple identities or something?_

" _What do you mean I never met you as 'Jaune Arc'?"_

 _He flipped the coin again and caught it. He chuckled a bit before answering._

" _Jaune Arc is my name. People don't always use names. Sometimes they use titles."_

" _Titles?"_

" _Yes, like sir, ma'am, professor," He sneered a bit as he spat out the next title. "doctor. The point is sometimes people identify by a job or position, rather than their given name."_

" _And what was your title?"_

 _He smiled and flipped the coin. It landed, and he spoke._

"Blake!"

The young faunus was quickly pulled out of her memories by their young team leader.

"Are you okay Blake?" Ruby had worry written all over her face. "You just kind of spaced out."

Blake attempted to pacify the small girl with a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking about our assignment for Professor Peach's class."

"Oh." She seemed satisfied by the answer. "I know what you mean. I'm having trouble with it too. There are so many different types and mixtures of dust! Aren't things supposed to start out easy then get harder? It's like they're starting at the end!"

Blake couldn't help but smile and shake her head at the poor girl. "It's not that bad, Ruby. I'm sure we'll get the hang of it sooner or later."

Ruby nodded. "I wonder if Weiss would be willing to help us."

Blake sighed. "I'm not sure asking her would be such a good idea. She isn't exactly fond of us… or anyone."

Ruby vigorously shook her head. "That's not true! She likes Pyrrha." It was true that the Schnee heiress was a fan of Pyrrha's. "And she's warming up to us. Maybe. I think…"

It was true that since the day she fought that Boarbatusk in Professor Port's class, she had been more tolerable.

Ruby continued on. "Either way, she's our teammate, and even if she doesn't like us, we should try to get along with her."

She doubted it would be that easy. "Do you really think it'll be that simple?"

Ruby let out a sigh of her own. "No. No I don't, but I'm still going to try."

Their young leader was tenacious; Blake would give her that. She just didn't know if getting along with the Schnee heiress was worth it. At least, Blake didn't really think it was. Truth be told, she didn't think much of the heiress.

Blake didn't think much of the Schnee Dust Corporation in general. Mostly because of their oppressive work practices for Faunus workers, partly because she believed they played a part in Adam's change to a bloodthirsty maniac.

One day about three years back, he said that the Schnee family wasn't going to be a problem much longer. He left for a mission, and came back some time later with a horn missing. Apparently something went wrong and he ended up getting the White Fang blacklisted by most mercenary groups. At least all of the ones associated with some guild.

Apparently the guild has quite a bit of influence over mercenary armies and corporations. Even non-guild mercenaries often refuse to work with people are groups that the guild blacklisted. She never did find out why they were blacklisted. All Adam ever said was "We were betrayed."

Other than that, he never spoke about what happened or how he lost one of his horns. He became more vicious, more paranoid, and more ruthless. She had always suspected that there was a darkness in him, but after that week, he seemed to give in to it.

As far as Blake was concerned, it was then that the White Fang she knew ceased to exist. Even if she had only officially left a few months ago, she never really felt she was really part of the group since the change.

But that wasn't the point. She had many enough reasons to dislike the Schnee family, and Weiss hadn't done much to help the situation.

"Blake? You're spacing out again. I don't think the homework is _that_ bad."

Blake just sighed and shook her head, a slight smile on her face. For now, she was happy that her leader bought her explanation. Yang would probably be a bit more inclined to pry, though Weiss would have probably just ignored her.

Regardless, even if her other teammates would have acted differently, they weren't here right now, and she didn't need to explain her worries to Ruby, and for that, she was thankful. After all, when it came down to it, Blake always took what she could get.

 **Authors Note: Sorry this chapter took so long. I had to re-write parts of it like five times, and I still feel like I should have done better. I'm still working on my pacing, dialogue, and actions. I'm doing my best to make a good story. That said, does anyone know how the Beta Reader system works? I feel like having a good Beta would help improve the quality of the story. Now, I've read the opinions on OC's, but what about characters from other things? How do people feel about slight crossover elements? That and introducing OC's for the sole purpose of killing them? Please review. Your reviews help me grow as a writer and they are important to me. I'll try to have a new chapter out sooner than last time. Thank you for reading.**


End file.
